The end of poverty: economic possibilities for our time

“THE END OF POVERTY”
Jeffrey Sachs
396pp.
Reviewed byNgelima Chisanga
University of Lusaka
Lusaka -Zambia
Is it really feasible that extreme poverty can end after a long stretch of history with failed efforts and strategies? Why now the end of extreme poverty? What has changed to call for the end of extreme poverty in our time? But encountering development economist in the name of Jeffrey Sachs, an eminent and renowned economist, a man behind a passionate and optimistic view that global extreme poverty can end in our lifetime, to be exact 2025.
This is a book a serious development scholar, practitioner and student should shelf, for it explores theoretical as well as pragmatic solutions in the quest to end extreme poverty and enhance a development that puts a human person at the center.
It is a well-researched book; experience backed with massive empirical and pragmatic data-data inspired by legitimate academic discourses, global and national policy documents. It is a book for reads! It is a book that endeavours to explore the opportunities as well as challenges of the developing world; Latin America, Asia, East Europe and Africa. It is a book that can be read by all classes simply because of its economic jargon made simple and captivating quality.
Not only is extreme poverty reported in Harvard journals, but extreme poverty encountered in villages of Africa and slums of Asia. Sachs, a man that does not only speak from an economic perspective but attaches a human face that makes him to appreciate that economic development is beyond classroom economics. The book brings out a real human situation told so simple, vivid and with humility yet profound. It is a book that provokes one’s emotion to do something for the neighbour.
Sachs in his book thinks it’s not right to have people die in masses with diseases that are preventable and treatable; people die of hunger in the world of plenty. It’s such that provokes him to elaborate in the book that it is possible to end extreme poverty only if right choices are implored-choices that create a much human world inspired by authentic respect for the human person.
He purely thinks poverty can end and he is very optimistic about it. He is a damn optimistic development economist who thinks that even in hopeless circumstances the right equation can be found in so far as right strategies and investments are implored. His passion to see poverty end is not just a fantasy but it is much more as depicted in one of his lines expressed in the book, “ I am not predicting what will happen, only explain what can happen”. What a humble scholar he is, who does not claim absoluteness. However, he is not naïve to think it’s going be easy, but not impossible and Bono, the man behind the foreword of this book aptly says, “It’s a challenge that’s hard to ignore”. Indeed it’s a challenge that’s arduous.
The book makes fascinating notes when the author goes outside the box of the traditional economics as he postulates what he calls Clinical Economics; an economic development approach that born from a medical diagnosis of human persons. This is an approach that appreciates the helical nature of economic development in the field of development economics. He elaborates the analogy by appreciating that treating a symptom is not sufficient though necessary because the same symptom can be as a result of different ailments. To enjoy the Jeff’s clinical economics reading the entire chapter will do justice.
Amidst extreme poverty in developing countries, Sachs is skeptical that poor countries will ever come out of extreme poverty unless they are helped by rich nations. He is indeed an optimist who I think, deliberately ignores that it is possible for the rich to refuse to help the poor. Assume the rich do not help; will the poor remain poor?
Having such an approach will limit other avenues in which a country a can come out of the shackles of extremes poverty. Are poor countries devoid of resources which could be their competitive advantage and earn them a way out of 

Review: The End of Poverty

Has a completely different perspective of ending poverty than what I've been taught. After all those times of not buying from the GAP because of the women and children forced into hard labor/toxic ... Read full review

Review: The End of Poverty

This book is an intellectual tour de force by Pr. Sachs. If anyone is interested in understanding the causes and dynamics of poverty "The Poverty Trap" this book is a must read. Read full review

Review: The End of Poverty

great; enlightening; made Madonna donate $1 million

Review: The End of Poverty

Brilliant. Very thought provoking. Read full review

Review: The End of Poverty

Boring but informational. Name dropper. Read full review

Review: The End of Poverty

A perfect companion piece to his more recent work, "The Price of Civilization," this 2005 book by macroeconomist Jeffrey Sachs is an excellent primer on what the world needs to do to eliminate poverty ... Read full review

Review: The End of Poverty

Jeffrey Sachs makes an undeniably urgent and very possible argument for the ability to end poverty by 2025. His passion is obvious and inspiring, and his statistics, sources, and extensive experience ... Read full review

Review: The End of Poverty

Interesting ideas for promoting women's well-being to encourage economic growth. Read full review

Review: The End of Poverty

Jeffry Sachs presents a remarkably hopeful case for the eradication of extreme poverty (defined as note having adequate nutrition, housing, or clothing day-to-day) in our lifetimes. It may be a story ... Read full review